Although Wu Sangui's statement was extremely pessimistic, the Manchurian relatives and nobles present felt that Wu Sangui's words were reasonable: "There must be more than 350,000 people who have withdrawn from the Yellow River, and it is definitely too late for us to withdraw now, as long as the Eight Banners and the elite of the Han army are withdrawn across the Yellow River, the situation will be completely different!" ”

Although the Azig army claims to have 100,000 people, there are only 50,000 real old people outside the gate in the so-called 100,000 army, and this is already the result of counting Wu Sangui's department, although the rest of the green battalion soldiers and the new annex army are not vulnerable, they are even more brave when they are thieves and bandits, but when they encounter the Yue Ming army, they can't even play the role of waving the flag and shouting.

Therefore, the opinions of the Manchurian nobles and Wu Sangui are actually completely identical, and they all suggest that the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners and the elite of the Mongol and Han armies of the outer vassals should be withdrawn from the Yellow River as soon as possible, and as long as these elite troops are intact, the Azig division is still the strongest field corps in the Great Qing State, and as for the general green battalion soldiers and the new annexed army, they can recruit as much as they want.

And Azig felt that their argument made sense.

Although the whole province of Henan belongs to Azig, Azig can be said to be the real emperor of soil on the ground in Henan, but Azig knows very well that the reason why he can dominate the whole province of Henan is because of the strong soldiers and horses, if the soldiers and horses are exhausted, even if they hold Henan, someone will replace them, so he immediately dispelled his intention to retreat: "Since everyone thinks that the Yellow River should be withdrawn, then I can't do it against everyone, but there are two things before the Yellow River is withdrawn, we have to do it quickly!" ”

The Manchurian nobles present were relieved to hear that Azig was willing to withdraw his troops, in fact, the repeated defeats of the Qing Dynasty in the past two years have affected their confidence in holding Henan, and everyone felt that holding on to Henan must be a dead end.

And Wu Sangui is particularly active in this matter: "Prince Ying, as long as you withdraw the Yellow River, let alone two, it is twenty or two hundred, and we will also help King Ying do it!" ”

And Azig was not polite to everyone, and immediately put forward the most important thing in his eyes: "First of all, we have to quickly inform King Yu of the news of our withdrawal!" ”

Now that King Duoduo of Yu has just entered Shaanxi, he is busy dealing with Yang Zhanjun and He Jinjun who launched a counteroffensive from Hanzhong, and Azig's withdrawal from Henan at this time can be said to have ceded Duoduo's flank to Duoduo, and Duoduo must adopt strategic containment even if he has the ability to reach the sky.

And Tong Yanghe was the first to agree with Azig's opinion: "Whether we withdraw our troops or not, we should inform Yuwang of the movements of Henan as soon as possible, this must be no problem!" ”

Wu Sangui sneered: "Prince Ying, you don't have to worry about King Yu, he runs the fastest every time he withdraws his troops, if he wasn't the first to escape, the Great Qing Kingdom would not be where it is today!" ”

If it was last year or this time before last, Wu Sangui would definitely not dare to laugh at a prince of the Great Qing Kingdom in front of the Manchurian nobles, but this year's situation is completely different, Wu Sangui doesn't think how great Duoduo is, and when he said this, all the Manchurian nobles felt that he was very reasonable, and even laughed out loud.

But Azig said expressionlessly: "The second thing is to contact Caozhou before withdrawing the troops, and let them let us go!" ”

Wu Sangui felt that Azig was a foolproof strategy: "That's right, the reason why the Caozhou thieves are so important now is because we fight to the death with the Jinhua thieves, if we are in harmony with the Jinhua thieves, the Caozhou thieves will probably be more honest than the kitten!" ”

Tong Yanghe also felt that Azig's strategy of contacting Caozhou was impeccable: "We can make it clear to Caozhou that as long as they are willing to let us go, we can give up the whole of Henan to Caozhou!" ”

The Manchurian relatives and nobles present were very excited when they heard this plan, and some people even said: "The last time the Caozhou thieves tossed our chickens and dogs, and now it is the turn of the Jinhua thieves to enjoy this kind of day, it is best that the Jinhua thieves and the Caozhou thieves can have a big fight, so that they can fight to the death!" ”

At the moment, what they are looking forward to the most is that the Yue Ming army and the Caozhou army will fight now.

But for Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Mengeng in Caozhou, Azig's decision to withdraw his troops can be said to be a blow to them, and Liu Liangzuo's face turned pale: "Isn't Jianyu known as invincible in the world, can he fight a hundred enemies with ten, a thousand with a hundred strikes, and a thousand with a thousand?" Why did you run away before you could fight much? Henan is his Azig fiefdom, and he withdrew the Yellow River, isn't there only the three prefectures in northern Henan? ”

Liu Liangzuo even felt that since Azig had decided to withdraw from the Yellow River, he would definitely not stick to the three prefectures in northern Henan, just as King Haoge of Su might withdraw from Shandong at any time, after all, even famous cities such as Jinan, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Zhengzhou were not ready to hold on, how could they stick to the three prefectures in northern Henan.

It's just that Zuo Mengeng feels that Liu Liangzuo has thought too much: "The most important question now is whether to let Azig a horse, if we are willing to let Azig a horse, Azig should be able to withdraw the Yellow River safely, but if we entangle Azig, the situation will be completely different!" ”

It is the main reason why Azig decided to contact Caozhou, and Liu Zeqing said indignantly: "Azig in the letter, as long as we are willing to let him go, he will give us the entire Henan territory, the problem is that he will not withdraw sooner or later, but at this time!" ”

Although Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Mengeng were the final victors of the Caozhou Uprising, their victory can only be described as a tragic victory, after all, the Qing army used by Shandong to suppress the Caozhou Revolution had 30 Niu Lu's Eight Banner Armor soldiers and 60 battalion head Green Battalion soldiers, and Azig used to suppress the Caozhou Rebellion even more.

Although Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo, and Zuo Mengeng cobbled together tens of thousands of backbone troops and tens of thousands of new troops, but they were a big difference with the real Qing army's regular army in terms of combat effectiveness and other aspects, and the result was that although there were gains in the early stage of the army, they soon lost troops and will lose amazing losses.

Originally, Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo still pinned their hopes on making a big profit after defeating the Qing army, but since the Yue Ming army invested 500 battalions of soldiers and horses on the east and west fronts at the same time, it was naturally impossible to give the fruits of victory to Caozhou.

Caozhou originally hoped to make a big profit on Azig, but now that Azig has withdrawn, their original wishful thinking is going to be completely bankrupt, so Liu Zeqing has such complaints.

And although Zuo Mengeng is a general, he is a typical tiger general and dog, and as soon as he heard Liu Zeqing's complaint, he quickly retreated: "Dongping Hou, since Azig can't afford to provoke the Yue Ming Dynasty, let's not be half-hearted, our Chengtian Emperor is not simple!" ”

Zuo Mengeng's words made Liu Zeqing feel that there was an opportunity to take advantage of: "If we want to fly Huang Tengda in this troubled era, we have to try our best to be half-hearted, Huang Degong is a lesson from the past, Azig is willing to let the whole of Henan out, that is the whole of Henan!" ”

Liu Liangzuo reminded him: "Not including the three mansions of northern Henan, and no matter how Azig cooperates, we can't take the three mansions of northern Henan, the imperial court not only sent Empress Fengtian Gao to lead the army to lead the expedition in person on the West Road, but also Gao Yigong, Li Guo, and Liu Tichun are all elites in a hundred battles, not to mention that there are dozens of battalion heads under Xing Shengping!" ”

Zuo Mengeng also agreed with Liu Liangzuo: "Not to mention how many elite soldiers and horses are in the south, dozens of battalions can be dispatched in the east at any time!" ”

And Zuo Mengeng still has a worry that he didn't say, the reason why the Caozhou Army went smoothly at the beginning of the incident and persisted until now, a key factor is that the banner of the Chengtian Dynasty was played, whether it was the Yuyuan Army or the Zhulu Righteous Army near Caozhou, they all cooperated with them because of the banner of the Chengtian Dynasty, and now the Chengtian Emperor personally led the army to the Northern Expedition, whether it was the Yuyuan Army or the heroes and rebels from all walks of life, they all wanted to contact the Chengtian Emperor Liu Yongxi, if they dared to play any tricks with Azig, I am afraid that these allies would hand the court a knife as soon as possible.

But Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Mengeng's words made Liu Zeqing make up his mind: "Since Emperor Chengtian Liu Yongxi is not a good person, then we must keep Azig to deal with him, otherwise after this kid gains power, we will die without a place to bury!" ”

Liu Liangzuo also wanted to persuade Liu Zeqing, but Liu Zeqing said neatly: "I have made up my mind, if any of you dare to retreat, don't blame my subordinates for being ruthless, this matter must be done!" ”

Liu Zeqing has always been ruthless, and since Caozhou is Liu Zeqing's hometown, he is naturally run into an iron bucket country, so as soon as he said this, Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Mengeng didn't dare to speak, and after a while, Zuo Mengeng said: "Since Dongping Hou has made up his mind, then let's do it!" ”

As for Empress Gao, she originally thought that this Northern Expedition would be extremely hard, after all, Azig's department was the last real field corps of the Great Qing Dynasty, and the Loyal Battalion and the Daxi Battalion might not be Azig's opponent, but no one expected that since the beginning of the Northern Expedition, all she had received was good news.

At first, it was Gao Yigong, Li Dingguo, Liu Tichun, and Li Guo who reported the good news, but soon he received the good news from Xing Shengping, the governor of Anhui, and also knew that Xing Shengping personally led the army to attack Henan, and the chances of winning the Northern Expedition were at least fifty percent more, but the most unexpected good news was that the Ming army on the East Road had sung all the way and directly won Jinan City.

Originally, Azig only needed to deal with the Northern Expeditionary Army of Huguang 1st Road, but now it has become to deal with the Northern Expeditionary Army of 3rd Road, so if there was only a 50% chance of winning before, now it has become an 80% chance or even a 90% chance of winning, so Queen Gao's side has become positive: "Niangniang, since Azig will definitely not be able to withstand it in Henan, you might as well personally lead the army to recover Kaifeng and Luoyang!" ”